Lovbrovbro
I hope I won't get downvoted for this, but I totally disagree with all former answers. These answers are very nice and wise and would be very appropriate if the guy was 37. But actually s/he is just 17. So here's my best advice: Even if you invested all your money in a very smartly diversified portfolio your capital gain over time would be no more than the first 2-3 paychecks you will get when you graduate from college and go full-time in the financial industry. In my opinion you should rather invest your money in building up yourself and do things you will surely not do after college. - Travelling: does not only mean a 1-day shop-trip to Tijuana or checking the Niagara Falls from the Canadian side. After you go full-time you will have only a couple of weeks off per year, so this is the last time you can take long journeys, to get lost in Europe or Tibet for 3 months for example. If you get to know different cultures, learn a couple of sentences in foreign languages, make local friends all over the world, that will surely pay-off during your professional career in very positive and unexpected ways. This will also make you more valuable and interesting for your future employers when you are compared to a guy who did nothing but outperformed the S&P500 by +3%. - Fail in business multiple times: Books on investments - like other answerers mentioned are a great start. However, I think focusing on practice is also important, you should probably start doing business. It's worth noting: as long as you are not graduated from college you are in a "no fail" environment. That is to say, nobody will ever condemn you if you fail in business during this period. You will proudly tell on your job interview how you went bust with your online gadget shop at the age of 19 then how you failed with your exotic excursion agency you bootstrapped with your Columbian friend when you were 21, and so on. They will love you for such stories. You can bet such experience will make you stand out of the crowd of nerds who in turn know everything about the Black-Scholes model and win all demo trading-competition. Also, by running your own business you will have first-hand experience on cash-flow, client-aquisition, inherent cost etc. compared to your peers who might be excel-gurus but would hardly haggle a 40% discount and a bottle of Tequila with a Mexican car dealer. - Friends: obviusly, friends are not for money, but the 5-7 years ahead of you are the last ones to make real, close friends. You will obviously meet great guys afterwards, will make tons of business-friendships, but they will not be the ones you can turn to when you are down. So, to sum it up, instead of investing your money in great portfolios I would strongly recommend to rather spend your money (and time) on a) travelling a lot, living abroad b) failing in business as many times as possible c) making true friends (not a question of money) as this is the best and most appropriate time in your life to do these things. Please upvote my answer if you agree with me.